Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Spider-Man: The Animated Series (also known simply as Spider-Man) is an American animated television series based on the Marvel Comic's superhero Spider-Man. The show ran on Fox Kids from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998. Synopsis The series focuses on Spider-Man and his alter ego Peter Parker during his college years at Empire State University. As the story begins Peter Parker has already gained his powers and is a part-time freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle. The series features all of Spider-Man's most popular villains with the exception of Sandman. Over the course of the series the single Peter Parker contends with the romantic love interests of Mary Jane Watson and Felicia Hardy. A sub-plot through most of the series focuses on Madame Web sending Spider-Man on missions to prepare him for his ultimate battle. The series also features guest appearences from several other Marvel heroes. Production overview While Marvel's X-Men animated series was being produced by Saban, Spider-Man: The Animated Series was produced by the newly formed Marvel Films Animation and was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha with Korean studios. It was Marvel's second longest running animated series (after X-Men: The Animated Series) and was the longest cartoon based on Spider-Man (until both shows were beat by Ultimate Spider-Man's third season which reached 78 episodes as of September 2015). The series was also known for it's high level of censorship which included *Spider-Man and other characters were never allowed to punch anyone. *No realistic weapons were allowed to be show, only laser weapons were allowed on the series. *Characters were not allowed to say the words like die, death, or kill. Instead of these words characters like Spider-Man would say that the burglar "Got Uncle Ben." Also when the Destroyer told the story about how his wife died he said that his wife "Was caught in the cross fire." *Carnage in the comics was a serial killer. In the series he was not allowed to kill anyone so he was changed to a lunatic. However, it is implied that he has killed people but this is never seen on screen. *When characters would be killed such as Uncle Ben, Kingpin's father, and Jack Murdock they would be killed off screen. *Morbius was not allowed to suck characters blood through his fangs so he sucked the blood through suction cups that are on the palm of his hands. *Additionally Morbius and other characters were not allowed to say the word blood. The word plasma was used in it's place. *When the Sinister Six was introduced the team had to be renamed the Insidious Six because the network sensors thought that the word sinister sounded to frightening. This is strange because at the same time X-Men: The Animated Series was using the character Mister Sinister. The series was censored so much because at the time parents groups were complaining about the level of violence on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. However, John Semper Jr. has stated the the series was not censored as much as everyone believes ant that this rumor has been blown way out of proportion. When Semper went to conventions he would read the censorship notes. His two favorites were "Caution that when Spider-Man lands on a roof, he doesn't harm any pigeons" and "You may have villain sent to jail, but you may NOT give him a bus ticket and send him to Florida." Marvel had no creative control on the tv series because at the time Marvel was in a tough time and close to bankruptcy. However, Stan Lee had influence on the shows first thirteen episodes. In preparation for creating the the series Semper watched the Spider-Man cartoon from 1967. He aslo rewatched episodes from the live action Spider-Man series called The Amazing Spider-Man and the Japanses Spider-Man series. According to John Semper Jr. he was forbidden from doing season long story arcs but did it any ways and almost got fired for it. However, he was allowed to get away with it because Marvel was dealing with their financial problems. Semper has stated that he is proud that he did season long arcs because it forced the viewers to pay attention. Semper has also said that he is proud of the fact that he made enemies over this decision. The villains Sandman and Electro could not be used in the series because James Cameron was planning to use them in a Spider-Man movie he was going to make. The film ended up not being made and toward the end of the series Semper got to use Electro but ran out of time on the series before he could use Sandman. Spider-Man was forbiddin from appearing on any other Marvel cartoon on Fox Kids and The Incredible Hulk which aired on UPN. However, he did make very brief cameos in The Incredible Hulk and X-Men: The Animated Series. Cast and characters Main cast *Christopher Daniel Barnes - Spider-Man / Peter Parker *Sara Ballantine - Mary Jane Watson *Gary Imhoff - Harry Osborn / Green Goblin II *Joseph Campanella - Lizard / Curt Conners *Jennifer Hale - Felicia Hardy / Black Cat *Julie Bennett - Aunt May Parker *Susan Beaubian - Mariah Crawford *Liz Georges - Debra Whitman *Patrick Labyorteaux - Flash Thompson Recurring cast *Ed Asner - J. Jonah Jameson *Rodney Saulsberry - Joseph Robertson *Nell Carter - Gloria Grant *Eddie Albert - Vulture / Adrian Toomes *Hank Azaria - Venom / Eddie Brock *Leigh-Allyn Baker - Alisha Silvermane *Majel Barrett - Anna Watson *Gregg Berger - Mysterio / Quentin Beck & Kraven the Hunter / Sergei Kravenhoff *Nicky Blair - Hammerhead *Roscoe Lee Brown - Kingpin / Wilson Fisk *Maxwell Caulfield - Alistair Smythe *Scott Cleverdon - Carnage / Cletus Kasady *Jeff Corey - Silvermane *Jim Cummings - Shocker *Ed Gilbert - Dormammu *Mark Hamill - Hobgoblin / Jason Macendale *Dorian Harewood - Tombstone / Lonnie Lincoln *Nick Jameson - Michael Morbius & Richard Fisk *Tony Jay - Baron Mordo *Martin Landau - Scorpion / Mac Gargan *Joan Lee - Madame Web *Giselle Loren - Margaret Connors *Richard Moll - Scorpion / Mac Gargan *Rob Paulsen - Hydro-Man / Morrie Bench *Neil Ross - Green Goblin / Norman Osborn *Marla Rubinoff - Liz Allan *Don Stark - Rhino *David Warner - Herbert Landon *Efrem Zimbalist Jr. - Doctor Octopus / Otto Octavius Music The series theme song was performed by Joe Perry who is the lead guitarist of Aerosmith. Reception Spider-Man was one of the most popular shows on Fox Kids, ranking with the programming block's other hit shows such as X-Men: The Animated Series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Batman: The Animated Series. In 1995 the series won an Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement for Writing in the Field of Animation for the episode Day of the Chameleon and in 1996 Spider-Man: The Animated Series was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Animated/Live-Action/Dramatic Youth or Children's Series/Special. Cancellation It's ultimate cancellation after 65 episodes was not due to low ratings but disagreements between executive producer Avi Arad and network head Margaret Loesch. Awards Writer / Producer John Semper Jr. won an Annie Award in 1995 for Best Individual Achievement for Writing in the Field of Animation for the episode "Day of the Chameleon." Spider-Man was also nominated for one 1996 Image Award for Outstanding Animation / Live-Action / Dramatic Youth or Children's Series / Special. Category:Television series Category:A-Z